It is known in the art to use supercritical CO2 conditions to trap and store CO2 gases. Because of the unique requirements of supercritical CO2, below ground storage of CO2 has heretofore required safety traps and adequate geologic cap lock/seals which has largely restricted suitable reservoirs to oil and gas fields. The number of available oil and gas fields and their capacity are but a few of the limitations which prevent more widespread use of supercritical CO2 storage.
Alternatively, it has been proposed to use above ground processing of brine by dissolving the CO2 in a surface facility prior to injection of the saturated brine into the groundwater. One such methodology is described in the publication Surface Dissolution: Minimizing Groundwater Impact and Leakage Risk Simultaneously as published in Energy Procedia in 2008 authored by MacMillan Burton and Steven Bryant. However, the methodology proposed by Burton and Bryant is very capital and energy intensive in that above-ground treatment and pressurization of the brine and CO2 gases is required and relies upon numerous injection wells.
Accordingly, there remains room for variation and improvement within the art.